Middle Eastern and Southeast Asian Literature

Middle East is considered the “birthplace of literature” since the earliest form of writing came from one of its regions, the ancient Persia or the modern-day Iraq.

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The Epic of Gilgamesh was a Persian narrative tale which tells the adventures of Gilgamesh, the King of Uruk.

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Qasida was an ode-like poem which explores the themes of honor, bravery, and the harshness of the desert life.

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Middle Eastern literature possess mixed features and characteristics as influenced by the Greeks, Persians, and Europeans.

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Confucianism—the belief that the soul brings a person closer to Allah—greatly affected many literary works from Middle East.

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Pali, a language similar to Sanskrit, was used by the Burmese in most of their early literary works.

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Myanmar was colonized by the British Empire, yet their language and literature was not highly influenced by their colonizers.

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Jatakas are stories that retell the birth of Allah in both human and non-human forms.

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The Malay language is still currently shared by countries such as Indonesia, Singapore, and Malaysia.

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Baybayin came the Tagalog word “baybay” which means “to syllabicate”.

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